Bryant Eslava :: Photographer Interview

08:16

Bryant recently got in touch asking if id like to have a look at his porfolio. When I clicked over the first thing I noticed is that its not...

Bryant recently got in touch asking if id like to have a look at his porfolio. When I clicked over the first thing I noticed is that its not the usual photography I feature here, not the soft lighting and muted colours that I'm drawn to... but rather a more candid raw feel. But I really love it. Maybe its the personality of his models that he manages to capture, or the fact its all done with film. Either way I really enjoyed looking through his work and so asked him for an interview.

I love that all your photography is done in film! Tell us a bit about what equipment you're using, films, cameras, lenses....

Thank you! I use to do digital work when I first started, and just about a year ago I jumped into film. I got sick of everyones digital work looking the same, so I decided to change things up.

When It comes to equipment all I could really say is Carl Zeiss lenses are the best. For film I first started shooting with Fujifilm and recently I've jumped into using Kodak, but overall they're both great.

I saw that you've done work with Nylon Mag, how did that come about? How did you get your work noticed?Over the summer of this year (2010) I made a trip to visit my grandparents and family from Mexico City. I got in touch with people at the Nylon mexico office, and they booked me an interview and a few weeks later I was shooting for them. I call it luck.

Who are the people in your photos? Some people on there are models who are signed with agencies, I thank all the amazing wardrobe stylist/makeup artists/hair stylist, that have made my models look beautiful.In the "35mm/people" section on my website, it's mostly my friends or people I've met. I believe m.i.a is in there somewhere she's sweet.I carry my camera everywhere I go, so all those photos are from when I'm outside playing with my friends.

How did you get started in photography? are you self taught or have you done classes?Haha good question. Well it was all back in my early high school days when my parents told me "If you get good grades we will reward you with a camera or macbook laptop). It was a very hard decision because at the time all I cared about was spending time on the internet socializing, and so I decided to take another routine and just go for the camera. I remember it was a nikon d40 which I believe is no longer sold in stores, but from that day on I started to ask friends at the time if they would allow me to photograph them. I then made a myspace profile where I would upload my photos and I started getting all these great opportunities. I'm self taught and I've only taken a class once, and It didn't last long. The teacher assigned a homework assignment to photograph a spoon which I thought was a joke, and so I never came back.

Any tips for people getting started in photography?Well I have tips for those people who are interested being film photographers. Always have your camera with you. Listen to music more often and close your eyes and let your mind visualize anything, then write down your ideas and go out there and shoot them.Never let anyone tell you being a photographer isn't going to make you big bucks in the future, that's crap. How many billboards do you see with photos? How many advertisement do you see on the internet? album covers? ep covers? everything is photography.Spend hours on the internet finding inspiration and study cameras and how they work.

great to see and read. really beautiful pictures too of course. i'm so amazed by these young and confident guys. wish i have had the same geist about photography in his age! but well, now i'm becoming an architect - that's good too... but still dreaming in photos.

me like it even though it's not the usual feminine soft light kind of photography like you mentioned. enjoyed reading he's interview too, he seems quite straight forward in saying what he thinks (in a good way).